It seems that the first graphics card using NVIDIA's latest 55nm fabrication process has in fact reached retail earlier than the January 2009 release date we had previously anticipated. A Japanese technology website has photos of an Inno3D GeForce GTX260 Gold featuring a factory overclocked, 216 SP chip, made by the 55nm process. What is interesting is that Inno3D have clearly advertised this fact by displaying 55nm on the product and in the product description. The core clock is set at 620Mhz with a memory clock of 1050Mhz, there is no information as yet on the shader clock. It can also be seen that there are no memory chips on the rear of the PCB, this means that all the memory chips are cooled by the stock cooler and there is no longer a need for backplates, as seen on many 65nm GT200 based cards. The pricing however does seem a little steep, with today's exchange rate, this would set you back around $390 USD, with online stores selling the 65nm equivalent for over $100 less, one would hope that the price will drop before it reaches the rest of the world's shores.

FIRST, The YEN has become unusually strong relative to other currencies in the last 3 months. It seems that the world economy thinks YEN is the right currency to invest. If you were to take the exchange rates of just 3 months ago, it would be $310 dollar. The YEN price is not reflective of how this SDK will be priced in $ and EURO markets.

SECOND, this is a just launched item. Always a liquidity premium in the first weeks. Nobody else has it in stock. It may well be a special "flown in" shipment at much higher logistics costs that the cards arriving on the boat next month.

THIRD, what are the prices of OTHER items IN THIS JAPANESE SHOP? It may be an expensive shop. Much cleverer to have also shown the YEN price of the old 65nm part from the same shop.

FIRST, The YEN has become unusually strong relative to other currencies in the last 3 months. It seems that the world economy thinks YEN is the right currency to invest. If you were to take the exchange rates of just 3 months ago, it would be $310 dollar. The YEN price is not reflective of how this SDK will be priced in $ and EURO markets.

SECOND, this is a just launched item. Always a liquidity premium in the first weeks. Nobody else has it in stock. It may well be a special "flown in" shipment at much higher logistics costs that the cards arriving on the boat next month.

THIRD, what are the prices of OTHER items IN THIS JAPANESE SHOP? It may be an expensive shop. Much cleverer to have also shown the YEN price of the old 65nm part from the same shop.